I don't know why the video ended up choppy, but this was the wildest thing.. I've never seen library stacks that move before. You hit the button on the one you want and they gradually all shift to open up. It's got this awesomely organic feel to it.

I have confirmed that the Greensboro area will be in peak fall colours around the wedding date :)

Looking at these guys for wedding day direction and some long distance coordination. I'm a sucker for a pride flag amidst all the other scripty, flowery sites. And they love theme weddings.

There are a couple of local caterers who will dress in period costumes and have experience with Medieval-style feasts. w00t!

This is still my favourite dress, although I'm trying to track something down that has the same look, but is more flowy. And that doesn't cost a fortune.

Best prospect for Steve, so far.

Guest list is sitting at 92 so far, eep. We decided to add children, so that upped the count quite a bit. Can't go over 102, although we'd rather keep it as small as possible.

And I will finally be able to get the headpiece of the Childlike Empress from The Neverending Story. *dreamy sigh*

Totally in love with this hairstyle (hence the growing out bangs).

Fire/belly dancer? Yes please.

Some bridesmaid inspirations here.

Ok that's enough for now :)

Originally written September 14th, 2005

Well it's officially official now :) No we don't have the real ring; it won't be ready until tomorrow after I'm in Winnipeg... but the claddagh Steve gave me that I have worn nearly every day of the past seven years of my life is now resting on my left hand instead of my right :)

Well, I spoke with Paulette at the castle the other day, and we now have the Great Hall of Castle McCulloch booked on November 12th, 2006 for our wedding and reception! It's a Sunday, and will be in the evening, around sunset. I was torn about the whole Sunday wedding thing (95% of guests will be from well out of town) but it looks like most people are going to have to miss a day of work anyway unless they're flying (oddly enough, my family here all wants to drive so far... I figured they'd fly), so what does it matter if it's the Friday or Monday I guess... and it's a bank/government holiday on the Monday, so that helps a bit. All the Saturdays around that date were booked up, and it's getting pretty cold by then so pushing it later wasn't an option :)

Here's the castle's site. Make sure to check out the virtual tours. So beautiful.

And some other photos:
http://www.aweddingminister.com/castle_mcculloch.jpg
http://www.mybeautifulwedding.com/castle.html (I hate the decorations they do, but there are some good photos of the hall on there and the "Weddings of the Month" pages at least)

The hall holds 150 in rows, and 102 for dinner, and then we'll clear out most of the tables for dancing. We'll probably have about 80-90 people in total.

I'm expecting a big binder from them in the mail soon with lots of details :)

We also went ahead and booked the free rehearsal slot, on the Friday afternoon.

You can even do a free three-hour photoshoot anywhere on the grounds sometime during a weekday. The staff is very nice, and don't have very many restrictions on what you can do, ie. candles, decor, etc.

Wheeee, it's really happening!

Originally written September 13th, 2005

They made the wrong ring! How does that happen?

I refuse to get too upset about this. We'll make it right. It's just a ring.

They changed the side settings a bit and if I want those made the same, it'll be next week. However, I don't really mind the change there. He's calling Steve back in the morning to make sure they can fix the rest by tomorrow. *sigh*

I feel terrible. I keep kicking myself for being so damn demanding and a perfectionist. I just can't imagine settling once I've seen exactly what I want. Steve is amazingly understanding about this all. I'd probably be ready to kill me on one hand, but wanting to make sure I got what I really wanted on the other. If that makes any sense.

After he sent the photos today, I kept having to talk to him at school on the phone while we went back and forth with Raru. Tried my hardest not to cry but wasn't very successful. This is so frustrating.

We went for a nice picnic tonight to forget about the ring silliness. The bottom line is that we're together and things will get straightened out :) *crosses fingers that they can fix the rest tomorrow so we can get it before I go see my sis*

Originally written September 8th, 2005

I keep dreaming about the ring! It's both amusing and endearing. My memory has faded about the first few dreams, but the other night I had one that involved going down to pick it up, but we were there with family. And it was in a high school gym for some reason. They were showing us all how they put it together. And there was a really cheesy fashion show. Then when we had to go home, something was wrong with our vehicle, so we had to buy a beaten up old truck on ebay to get home. Weird, I tell ya.

I can't believe there's going to be an engagement ring on my finger in less than a week! My heart jumps at the thought. It's gonna be a tight squeeze to tell everyone. We'll pick up the ring on Tuesday, and I'm off to Winnipeg on Thursday, so we've gotta meet up with my dad before then. Family gets first dibs on this one thing :) We really planned a lot of this around when I was going to see my sister in person. So then I go off and do the girls' thing with her for a few days, then we're back for all of two days (which is when all you guys get to know, muhahaha), then off to Florida to have a few days to celebrate on our own.

I feel like a big fat copycat with all the engagin' going on lately! I just wanna be like Meagan and Erica, yeah yeah, that's it ;)

(Originally written Aug. 19, 2005)

We're still working on getting the right centre stone. When we were in the shop, we'd found a heart-shaped ruby in the right size, but not the right colour, so we found another large, pear-shaped ruby that had the right colour for comparison. So they've been trying to track down the perfect ruby. The next batch wasn't anywhere close. The centre stone is the comparison colour.

A week or so later, he got in some other stones from NY. Now we're getting somewhere! The top left and bottom right still have that pinkish hue. Upon brightening up the image, so did the third one down on the left. The bottom left one seems to have the nicest shape, but I have a feeling that's just due to the angle of the stone in the photo. So it looks like it's the top right, bottom left, or second from the top on the left. Any of those look fine to me! Steve is replying today to tell him to use whichever one of those three is best.

Three weeks... :)

This post was originally written on August 3rd, 2005

Today was the first major step in officially declaring our intentions to spend the rest of our lives together :)

We made the trip to Grand Island, NY to visit deSignet and check out engagement rings. Steve emailed them a few days ago with the ring design we were looking at, and our time frame. I've had this ring bookmarked for years, and try as I might (just to be sure), I've never found anything so perfect.

The store is just a few minutes over the border from Canada. It's been run by the family since the early 1900s. They were extremely down-to-earth, fun, and helpful. Bud offered many suggestions, constantly asking our opinions. I had a pretty clear idea in mind before we got there, but it was great to explore other options, and challenge our ideas. They make some incredible stuff!

The ring will have a ~5.5x5.5mm deep red heart-shaped ruby, and two 2.5mm accent diamonds. The band will be slightly narrower than pictured (3mm). The mounting will be as pictured above, but in yellow gold (except for a white gold lining under the accent diamonds). I was torn on the side diamonds, but Steve strongly preferred them, so diamonds it is :) I think he's right though... it will add that extra "wow" factor. We talked about a patterned band, or using our initials as a design on the band, but I think we're looking at doing a patterned wedding ring, so I liked the simplicity of a solid band.

I also spent a lot of time agonizing over ruby colours. These things are important! I just don't like the pinkish undertones of most rubies. It's gotta be the real blood red colour. He's going to check on rubies and try to get some stones in a couple of days, then send off photos and specs to us. He said he usually gets back to customers with sketch requests within a few hours, as he loves to sketch out design ideas.

So exciting. I have to admit, I was a little nervous a few days ago when we were making plans to REALLY do this... but now I'm completely on a cloud of happiness.

Yes it's really happening... we're engaged! Steve wrote a very sweet post in the forums last night, and today has been so insanely busy that this is my first chance to sit down and write something myself.

I've actually been writing a few journal entries over the past weeks about it that I saved but didn't post, so watch for them soon :)

I'm on a cloud... I can't stop grinning, and giggling, and staring at my hand... and then there's using that delightful F-word constantly: fiancée.

So to answer some of the common questions... okay I just deleted the bullet points from this post so it wouldn't be TOO methodical :P How/when? Well it wasn't exactly a surprise for me. We ordered the ring together (and they made the wrong one at first! More about that later), planned it together, etc. Hence the going to Florida tomorrow, to kinda make it more special and romantic for just the two of us. And the trip to Winnipeg was planned so I could tell my sis in person. We went out to tell my family yesterday which was so surreal! But yes there actually was a proposal, down on BOTH knees, no less, and saying wonderful things that made me bawl.

Set a date? Tentatively November 11th, 2006. Yeah I know it's rememberance day, but hey, at least we won't forget our anniversary :P Why that date? Well, October seems to be a bad month for booking castles (yes, I said castles) due to Halloween, so November 11th is the next available date at the best castle I've found so far, which is amusingly enough, in North Carolina. I say amusing, because that's where Steve's family is, but that's completely unintentional. But at least it's not freezing cold down there in November.

The ring? Custom gold claddagh ring with a .7 carat heart-shaped ruby, and two side diamonds. Pics to follow.

Other plans? Oh you will be hearing about them, believe me :) I'm sure wedding stuff doesn't interest everyone, so I won't be offended if your eyes start to glaze over after a while... but the basics: medium sized wedding, likely NC on Nov 11th, Medieval-themed, broadcast live online, evening.

I scoured my closet and the basement storage, and I most definitely do not have a dress to wear to a summer evening wedding. this means I get to buy a new dress! I haven't had an excuse to do that in so very long :)